Defend the voice of nurses and health workers! Allow Nurses United to participate in the 2022 party-list elections!

Nurses represent the largest workforce in Philippine health care and one of the marginalized sectors of our society. Together with other health workers, we are essential and vital in health care industry. Therefore, our voice must be heard in policy-making processes that will uplift our social, mental, economic and physical condition.

Nurses and other health care workers belong to the marginalized sectors of our society. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have yearned for support and protection to be able to give our best to our patients and the communities we serve. Our woeful work conditions have triggered the exodus of nurses to seek for better opportunities in foreign lands. When the pandemic struck, despite the difficulties we ourselves face – lack of personal protective equipment, low salaries/allowances/benefits, lack of job security, and low morale, we rose to the challenge and held true to our oath to protect and save lives.

Thus, NURSES UNITED endeavors to be the catalyst for change and pro-actively participate in the attainment of a health care system that is free, comprehensive, tax-funded, integrated and equitable through the following platforms:

Advance the economic rights and general welfare of nurses and fellow health workers.

1. Implement Salary Grade 15 (P35,000) or its equivalent amount as entry level monthly salary for nurses in public and private sectors.
2. Enact a law for the provision of minimum wage of health workers such as P16,000 monthly for Salary Grade 1 in government sector and P750. daily minimum wage in private sector.
3. Increase salaries of other health professionals in public and private sectors.
4. Enact a law ending the practice of contractualization.
5. Ensure full enforcement of the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers including relevant amendment of its provisions.
6. Enact a Magna Carta of Private Health Workers.
7. Enact a responsive and progressive national nursing law.
8. Uphold, advance and protect the rights of all public and private nurses.
9. Strengthen public health system and ensure that every barangay will have at least one public health nurse and full complement of health personnel (physicians, dentists, midwives, nutritionist-dieticians, sanitary inspectors, etc.)
10. Work for policies towards nationalist, scientific, community-oriented nursing and health sciences education.
11. Enact measures for the security, safety and protection of frontline health workers deployed in all fields of health services.

Work for relevant reforms in the health care system.

1. Adequate health budget for public hospitals to provide free health services to the people.
2. Public hospitals, rural health units, health centers and barangay health stations to provide
free, safe, quality medicines especially the marginalized sectors.

Support good governance.

1. Ensure wise spending of appropriated funds for the people especially for health.
2. Ensure policies against graft and corruption.

To be able to do this, we, the NURSES UNITED, whose memberships comprise of nurses and other health workers, urge the Commission on Election to:

1. Register and accredit NURSES UNITED as a sectoral party of Filipino nurses and health workers;
2. Allow NURSES UNITED to participate in the 2022 party-list elections, and in subsequent elections thereafter; and
3. Accord all rights and privileges of a registered and accredited party-list to NURSES UNITED.

Likewise, we call on all Filipinos here and abroad to support a genuine representative of nurses and health workers in the party-list system.

#AccreditNURSESUNITED